Practise Tolerance

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
28 July 2011, part 1

I have got this opportunity today to say something to the devotees all over the world. I have been out of Nabadwip for many days now and have not kept such a good connection with all the devotees. I always want to hear from the devotees—sometimes some devotees phone me, sometimes I reply their emails, sometimes give initiation, etc. but there are so many disciples of Gurudev, disciples of Srila Guru Maharaj all over the world—I am not getting so much news from them, and they are also not getting news from me. That is why I want to send some message on behalf of Chaitanya Saraswat Math (the central Math with worldwide branches).

Actually, after Gurudev's disappearance, there have been many bad days, but we are tolerating so much—we are tolerating everything. Before he left the world, Gurudev told me that this kind of situation would come, but it would not stay for a long time. More than one year has already passed, and we are suffering so much, we are tolerating so much—this is only an examination, only a test from the Guru, from Krishna, from the Lord. They want to see how much you can tolerate for the sake of service. Otherwise, there are so many problems, we can just leave—we can go out, thinking, "Oh, why must I stay at the temple? Why must I suffer so many problems for the temple?" But this is not the service mood. Some problem will come, some bad situations will come, but think about it—in any field, if you want to reach your goal, you have to tolerate everything. It ultimately all depends upon the devotional activities.

Sometimes we leave our devotional mood, sometimes we leave our service mood, sometimes we feel annoyed with our service, but this actually depends upon one's practice. This is one of the main directives of Mahaprabhu, and Gurudev also always told, "Be humble, tolerant, give honour to others." We must tolerate everything, and Krishna will see to it that everything is smooth in the end, He will remove bad environment. Our duty is to proceed with our service.

Actually, those who want to make something cannot think about destroying anything, and those who want to destroy something cannot think about making anything. If one's brain is set on destroying something, they cannot think about making anything. Some of our friends always want to destroy our Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, you know that, and you must be careful because of that. I am telling it to all the devotees—be very careful.

Our Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math is united, and we want to be united under one umbrella. This mission was made by Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj whose disappearance is the day after tomorrow, and this Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj is powerful. He, in turn, gave so much affection to our Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Originally, there were only three temples here, but now all over the world there are more than a hundred spiritually affiliated centres, there are so many thousands of devotees all over the world, they are all eager to know Gurudev's conception.

You know and remember what Gurudev told to everybody—you must understand this. What did Gurudev say? He said, "Wherever you live, you must continue practising, you must continue your Krishna consciousness life." Sometimes we sit in one place and the illusory environment attacks us—sometimes bad things come to our mind, we start doing bad things, doing some nonsense things and we forget our practising life. We do not want to see others' fault. Vaishnavs are adosa darasi, they do not see others' faults. A Vaishnava will not search for faults—he will serve and practise, serve and practise, and chant.

When Sivananda Sen was leaving Puri, he asked Chaitanya Mahaprabhu once, "Prabhu, we are householder people, what is our duty when we go back to our houses?" Mahaprabhu said, "Go back to your house, serve Vishnavs and do Nama-sankirtan (bari giye koro vaisnava-seva, nama-sankirtana), then you will quickly get the wealth of Krishna-prema, love and affection for the Lord (achirat tumi pabe Krsna-prema-dhan). What is our main goal? Krishna prema. This is what we want.

So, we are not going to see others' faults—if we watch who is doing this, who did that, then we are losing our time. How many hours do we practise? If we lose time talking about this, this, this and that, and that, before we know it our life will finish. How many days will you live in this world and what will you do?

Gurudev told me to protect the temple, and I am still continuing this service, I am still keeping connection with the devotees. Why? Because Gurudev told me to, and I promised it to him. Otherwise, personally, I can go anywhere, I can live in some place, sit and take one chapati a day, but this is not my mood. If I die for the service of Gurudev, that is OK for me, that is actually my hope and my pleasure. I am not afraid of dying—one day I was born and one day I have to die, so this is not a problem for us.

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